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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

There are three "kids" I know (other than my son and niece) who are graduating from high school this year. One is a young woman, and the other two are young men. I've known them all since they were about four.

I feel old.

Anyway, I wanted to make graduation cards for them, so here's the one for the young woman. I went a little crazy with the bling, but it makes me happy. Hope it makes her happy, too.

The grass is an old Hero Arts shadow stamp, and the tree comes from Papertrey's Father Knows Best set. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Happy Days set. I wanted to make the colors happy and fun for a woman who is an amazing student and has a heart for God.

Looking at the close-up photo made me realized I missed a bling! So glad I noticed and can remedy it!

Graduation time is so much fun, and I'm excited to see where life takes these young people. Do you have a flurry of graduates this year? Are you making cards? Share links in the comments if you've posted them online and inspire me and others!

Monday, May 14, 2018

Today's card is a fun thank you to all who commented on or emailed me about yesterday's post--for the encouragement, for the stories, for the prayers and good thoughts. I had an awesome conversation with my amazing sister-in-law this evening. She had lots of good advice for me. Looks like I'll be creating a LinkedIn profile soon.

I feel so hip!

Anyway, today's card was inspired by a number of cards using the basic idea (I've used it before, too), but this time instead of flowers and leaves, I chose mushrooms and this awesome color scheme of greens, pool, and purples.

I started with the sentiment in the middle and added the mushrooms next. Then, I added the dandelion seeds to fill in the voids.

The shape of my oval ended up looking odd on a standard card (too circular), so I cut it down and made an irregularly shaped card that's 5" x 4.75" and will fit into a standard 5" x 7" envelope.

Now, there've been a lot crazy disasters in the past few days. First, my car tire picked up a nail...too close to the edge to repair. Of course the tread wear and the fact that the car is all-wheel drive mean we need four new tires, even though the tires still have life in them. We're seeking a second opinion on this. Grrrr.

As you might imagine, I need to go to bed and listen to a Calm meditation, pray, and go to sleep. If you haven't discovered the joys of Calm, download the app immediately and get started. Mindfulness, meditation, and prayer will get me through.

And the lovely support of you wonderful stampers. God bless us, every one!

Sunday, May 13, 2018

I haven't posted since Tuesday because I didn't have anything to post. The closer we get to my older son's graduation from high school, the less time I have to stamp, so expect sporadic posting in the coming weeks.

For Mother's Day, I made time to stamp, and then my camera battery died, so I still have no stamping to share. What a bust!

The battery will be recharged tomorrow, and I'll post a card. If you read Simplicity for the stamping, check back tomorrow. The rest of this post gets personal, and if you want to click away now, I totally understand. My life's not that interesting, but perhaps you might find my musings about middle-aged existential angst helpful.

Or not.

First of all, I'm getting my resume together to apply for jobs. It's time for me to get back to work. My boys are old enough to cope with my absence, Nick is heading to college in August, Jack has made phenomenal progress in the past few years, and I'm in need of a new challenge.

My preferred employment would be at a university as an adjunct instructor of English composition and literature. I did this job twenty years ago--very successfully. Teaching college suits my personality and skill set beautifully. My evaluations from students and department heads who observed my classes were always excellent. I am prompt, professional, knowledgeable in my subject (some might say a tad obsessed), extremely enthusiastic, and deeply compassionate toward my students.

This is, however, a scary transition, and I wasn't prepared for that. What is it about women that we doubt ourselves despite all evidence to the contrary? Yes, I've been a stay-at-home mom for eighteen years, but that hardly means I sat around eating bonbons and asking my children to peel me grapes. The two years before I had Nick, I worked at a major high-tech corporate headquarters as a writer/editor with all sorts of responsibility. Since then, I've worked hard as a volunteer in schools and in church, expanded my public speaking skills, taught Stephen Ministry and Bible study classes, researched the dickens out of autism, managed my son's treatment and reaped huge improvements for him as a result, organized four moves for our family, and generally keep everything running smoothly in our lives.

I am competent, smart, and talented in all the right ways. I can do this job...joyfully and well.

So why in the heck am I afraid to hit send on these applications? After all, what's the worst thing that can happen? I don't get a job teaching and end up selling books at Barnes & Noble (33% employee discount...yay!) and trying to work as a freelance writer/editor.

Not too shabby a worst-case scenario, in my opinion. Especially the discount. I buy a lot of books.

If I psychoanalyze myself, there are two possible explanations. One, I've still got work to do on the perfectionism that is the legacy of a childhood spent under the eternally disapproving eye of my father. What if I fail!?!?! How horrible!!!! My daddy won't love me!!!!

Seriously? I'm 51, and is this still hanging around in the shadowy recesses of my subconscious? Plus, stamping has taught me the value and fun of failure. Why should that bother me here? The consequences are certainly not life-threatening. The stakes were higher with my autism research.

Two, I'm feeling the pressure of having read a few too many articles about older women re-entering the workforce. But the only thing that's changed substantially in my career fields in twenty years is technology, and I'm a fast learner. Current best practices of teaching English are essentially the same. The rules of rhetoric and effective written communication haven't substantially changed in millenia. I've got this.

Just typing that last sentence made my stomach do a flip.

If you've read this far, thank you. Even though my stomach flipped, it's enormously helpful to share my feelings with you, kind and sympathetic stampers. Stampers are the best! I know I'm not alone in my insecurities, and if you're feeling a bit like me, afraid of taking a new step forward, I'm right there with you.

I also recommend reading Adam Hamilton's new book Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times. It's faith-based, if you're into that sort of thing, and extremely inspiring. I am finding it helpful, and you might, too.

Scripture tells us over and over not to be afraid. Well, I am. (Bad Christian, Susan! Bad!) But I'm doing this anyway. I'm moving forward, despite stomach flips and nausea. And if I'm overcoming my fear, you can, too.

If you feel so moved, share your fears and upcoming transitions in the comments. Let's all inspire one another to move forward.

And happy Mother's Day to all women who have mothered anyone anywhere at any time. What would we do without each other?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

PS Gratuitous family picture from George's birthday dinner last night.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

After seeing Joan B's post using a stencil in her die cut machine, I realized I hadn't even tried that yet. So here you go...Thanksgiving in May. Thanks for the inspiration, Joan!

I ran the stencil through the Cuttlebug and got a lovely embossed effect, but it was extremely subtle and I wanted to bring out the leaf shapes better. After adding various distress inks and cutting the panel down to size, I was very pleased with the bold color and highlights.

The leaf stamps and dies are from Papertrey's Leave It Be set. Papertrey's dies are closed, and I've decided I really prefer the Hero Arts open dies, which are much easier to line up with stamped images.

The card looked a bit plain so I added some dew drops...my first use of this kind gift from Linda E. LOVE how they turned out!

So now I have my first Thanksgiving card of the year. I usually send about 20 in November, so it's good to start early. And for those of you in the southern hemisphere who are in the fall season now, perhaps this will resonate!

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Today's card was inspired by Susanne of the blog Art Handicraft in the Village (translated into English) via her pin here. Once again, I never would have thought of making this card were it not for the lovely inspiration of Susanne's card.

As you can see, I stole was inspired by Susanne's stippled background and speckles (although her card has a much daintier, softer appearance than mine). I used a stamp to add the spots (my handy dandy StampinUp Itty Bitty Backgrounds stamp). The leaves are from Hero Arts' February kit, and I die cut three of them to look more vine-like as I didn't have a delicate enough branch or flower die to pull this off.

After I'd assembled the whole card, I decided that none of the threads I had would look nearly as nice as Susanne's, so I opted for (duh) bling as an embellishment.

And now, for no reason whatsoever, here are Cooper and George smiling at you. They hope you're smiling back.

Hard to believe that great big teddy bear used to be this tiny widdle puppy: